Homework Help
by doctoring
Summary: Hermione is struggling to deal with her flustered reaction around Draco. This is only made worse when Draco ends up striking a friendly conversation with her while helping her with her Potions paper. Even Ron finds this weird. / Takes place during their sixth year. / Sequel to Writer's Month Fic #16: Soulmate Spotted. A fic written for Writer's Month. Word Prompt: weird


After the incident with the soulmate potion, Hermione convinced herself it was a fluke. She probably just saw flashes of colors, and immediately associated it with Draco. Or maybe the potion messed up and showed her someone of importance to finding the horcruxes after all.

_He does run with that crowd, so it's possible._

She came up with about a dozen more excuses, nearly half had solid reasoning, but none of them explained why she started to become a flustered mess around Draco.

She found herself blushing more and sneaking glances. Sometimes blushing while sneaking glances whenever he'd catch her looking. Worse, she'd catch him looking at her at times, causing a complete lack of focus immediately thereafter.

One day, Hermione and Ron were working on a report for their Potions class. As Ron played with his quill distractedly, changing it into various other objects seen on the desk, Hermione went in search of another book. It was one she read three years ago but needed to reference again for the report. She turned down the aisle she needed, just to see Draco standing there, right in the middle, reading a book.

_Just my luck_.

She took a deep breath and went to find her book. She paced down the row, unable to find it. From her peripheral it appeared that Draco was watching her. She suddenly became overly aware of her rate of breathing and her hands, meaning she had less control of both.

She turned to start looking back up the row. Right when she tries to sneak a glance towards Draco, she sees him far too close.

He's walking back to his own desk, right past her. Hermione quickly looks back towards the books and mutters, "_Vegetation Differences in Riparian Zones …_ I could have sworn that was the title… _Riparian Zones…_"

She sees him flinch as he looks back at her before he continues walking.

_That was odd._

_But what's odder is not being able to find this book. It's technically a herbiology book. An obscure one at that… Unless there's an herbiology class suddenly interested in semi-aquatic plants along riverbanks, there shouldn't be anyone using it._

_I guess there's no point in wasting my time looking for it. I only needed it for an example for the paper. There are plenty of other examples I can use if the book doesn't appear._

She gives up and sits back down across from Ron, making a mental note to find the librarian and ask her about it later.

As soon as she sits, Ron says something about going for a snack break.

"Didn't you just come back from one about 20 minutes ago?"

"That was a juice break. This is a snack break." He starts to stand. "Want to come with?"

"No, I'd rather get this done…"

"Well, want me to bring you back anything?"

"I'm fine. I can wait til dinner time."

Ron shrugs and walks away.

Hermione continues her report for another 10 minutes, then stops, realizing she absolutely needs the book now since she written a full page on differences in semi-aquatic biomes.

She stands up quickly to go find the librarian but feels her chair bump into something.

"Watch it, Granger!"

She feels her face heat up before she can even turn her head to confirm the source of the voice.

"Is that anyway to-"

"I'm awfully sorry. I didn't realize anyone was behind me."

Draco stops and frowns, before a small smile graces his lips. "Right. That's okay. Just be careful next time."

"Right." Hermione takes a few steps back, making a mental note to look up how to transfigure into a non-blushing version of herself. "I'm just gonna go look for-"

"This book?" Draco asks, holding up the book he was carrying behind his back.

"Where did you-"

"I was looking up information for my magical creatures homework. Dietary needs or whatever. I heard you mumbling about this book… so… here it is."

Hermione hesitantly reaches for the book but doesn't take it. "Don't you need it for your report?"

"I did. But I jotted everything I needed down, so you can use it now if you still need it."

She takes the book and thanks him, slowly sitting back down.

But then Draco sits beside her. "So, what's are you working on for Herbiology?"

"Excuse me?" Hermione suddenly thinks that having him there, attempting to converse with her, should count as an unforgiveable curse.

Draco taps the cover of the book. "I figured you needed this for a Herbiology report. Did you not?"

Hermione then goes on to explain that they had to write a report on regional differences in potions ingredients since several students caused damage to the room by using toadstools harvested from the mountains, rather than toadstools harvested from closer to sea-level.

Draco laughed and said, "Snape also had us do a punishment-paper, but we have to find potions that can alter greatly if you do the steps quicker or slower."

Hermione automatically thinks of the felix felicis potion becoming a soulmate potion with just one ingredient change and 20 days of brewing, and feels a twinge in her chest.

"So… So I still don't get why you need this book for Snape's class."

She starts to explain the specific example she needed from the book, how there's a type of fern as well as a type of moss that grows denser and darker on riversides, and should be used cautiously in potions because the water content can alter the potion, but then suddenly shuts her mouth, realizing she just set herself up for ridicule from Draco.

Instead he just looks at her curiously before repeating her last few words, prompting her to continue. She finished what she was saying, a thought in the back of her mind about how he hasn't been as mean this past year…

_Even with the whole Death Eater suspicion, he's actually been more civil than before, and now he seems genuinely curious about my potions paper._

She begins to grow suspicious when he says, "That's a pretty smart connection. Where did you hear about riparian plants? I mean, I knew about the moss, but only because I _just _read it just moments ago."

"I… I read the book three years ago. I couldn't remember the exact names of the plants, but I remember reading about it."

"Three years? Holy hell, and you remember an obscure passage from one of the billions of books you read that long ago?"

Hermione shrugs, unsure of how to process the information.

"That's pretty amaz-"

"Weird. So bloody weird." Both students snap their head up to see Ron standing near the desk, holding a plate of food he took from the great hall. "What are you doing here?"

Hermione looks to Draco, curious for the answer herself.

Draco sits up straighter. "I'm just helping Granger here with her potions paper." He slides the book towards himself and starts paging through it.

Ron sits he plate of food down and gestures to the shelf of books behind him. "Hermione. Can you help me find a book… way over here…?"

Hermione follows Ron, who walks down two aisles, before he suddenly turns to face her. "What the bloody hell is going on?"

She shrugs.

"What is he doing here? Why are you fraternizing the enemy?"

She rolls her eyes. "He's seriously just helping me with my paper."

"Since when did you need help with papers?"

"Since he had the book I needed, and read it most recently, so he knows it better than I do."

Ron's facial expression goes from anger, to disbelief, to horror.

"The world is ending. The world is definitely ending. This is too weird to be real. This just-"

"Oh, get over yourself!" Hermione said, headed back to her desk, hoping Draco hadn't left. To both Gryffindors' surprise, Draco was still here, sitting at the table, tearing small parchments pieces.

"See, he's tearing up your paper, how is that helping?" Ron hisses into her ear.

As they hastily approach the table, they see him using the parchments to bookmark two pages, before closing the book. Draco looks up and stands. The twitch in the corner of his mouth upon seeing Hermione will cause Hermione to question if that was a smile for the rest of the evening.

"I've marked a few pages you'll need. Not sure if there's more, but that's a start," He says, tapping the cover twice.

"Thank you," Hermione said quietly as Ron scoffs loudly.

"Bye, Wesley," Draco says coldly before he mumbles, "You tosser."

"Did you hear that!?" Ron exclaims as Draco turns to leave.

Without barely a glance back, Draco says, "Good luck on your paper, Hermione."

She just nods, even though he had already turned the corner and couldn't see her.

She begins to open the marked pages.

"Did he… Did he just use your first name?"

"I believe he did." She flips through, confirming that he did indeed find the exact species of moss she wanted to add to her report.

"And did he really help you find information for your paper?"

She begins scribbling down information about the water content of moss. "It does seem that way."

"Huh…. Weird…"

-the end-


End file.
